Overview

• On July 29, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification issued a famine alert indicating that large areas of Gaza face a worst-case hunger scenario.
• A full Israeli blockade from March through May cut off food and essential supplies, and aid deliveries resumed in May at only a fraction of the levels needed for over two million people.
• Residents report spending entire days scavenging cloth to sell as fire starters or jostling at aid trucks where crowds strip cargo and Israeli troops sometimes fire warning shots just to secure one meal.
• Gaza’s hospitals admitted more than 20,000 children for acute malnutrition between April and mid-July and reported at least 16 hunger-related deaths among children under five since July.
• Humanitarian groups warn that without an urgent, large-scale boost in aid, starvation deaths will multiply far beyond the dozens already recorded at chaotic distribution points.